Hidden from view
Part I

So much of this pandemic is unseen. But despite national lockdowns and social distancing, photographers are documenting the raw tragedy – and triumphs – of the fight against Covid-19

By Jon Jones, head of photography

If you look back at the last eight weeks of lockdown, what do you see? People clapping for the NHS, couples walking in the park, volunteers delivering food to the elderly and vulnerable. We’ve seen images of panic buying in supermarkets, car parks as testing sites, and people flouting the stay-at-home advice. As moments in time they are important, but they are also a reminder that so much of about this deadly virus, which has killed nearly 300,000 people worldwide, is unseen.

Why this story?

This is a pivotal week for the pandemic in the world. In five short months, the coronavirus has overwhelmed some of the globe’s wealthiest countries. Health services have been tested like never before, economies have juddered to a near halt, and many, many people have lost their lives. But the virus has, so far, had less of an impact on countries in Africa and South America, the Middle East and Central Asia. Experts warn that this is about to change.

And so we are this week keeping a watching brief on the Global Frontline. We will consider where the pandemic goes next, the people and places around the world that are most vulnerable, where it might be met by global leadership – and how it could remake international institutions. Basia Cummings, editor

Since the outbreak started, I have looked at thousands of images from hundreds of photographers around the world. What struck me is just how much is hidden from view. Of course, the photographers documenting this – the biggest story many of us will cover in our lifetimes – are facing huge challenges, from restrictions on movement, a lack of access, to the ever-present threat to their health. And so it is that biggest global event of our time is partly hidden, hard to interrogate, leaving us struggling to fully understand it.

In some places, all we can see are soldiers patrolling the streets. In others, photographers can only gain access to mass testing stations and huge field hospitals – the flagship projects of panicked government. Elsewhere the images are just, empty. Here, in a two-part essay, we glimpse the reality of life on the new global frontline.

A patient with coronavirus is treated at the intensive care unit of Aachen University Hospital, in Germany.

Healthcare workers mourn colleagues who died from coronavirus during a demonstration outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York.

A medical worker cares for a patient suffering from Covid-19 in Rome's San Filippo Neri Hospital.

Queues of shoppers outside the municipal market in the Peruvian city of Piura. As of April 29, there were 33,931 confirmed cases in Peru, and 943 deaths.

A busy hallway in the emergency department at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital, New York.

Children are disinfected during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown in Kathmandu.

Witoto indigenous nursing assistant Vanda Ortega, 32, embarks on her round of healthcare visits in the Parque das Tribos, an indigenous community in the suburbs of Manaus, Brazil.

Police officers on their way to visit residents in remote areas in Altay, in China's Xinjiang region, to promote the awareness of the virus.